Another VA Medical Scandal: Patients exposed to HepB/C, HIV due to Dentists laziness

[CycloWizard]

VA hospitals are used as part-time teaching hospitals with little accountability. A far superior approach would be to simply give vets a free insurance plan that can be used at any hospital. This would decrease the size of government and actually improve the quality of treatments vets receive.

The St. Louis VA is a scary, scary place running a huge budget deficit even before its problems with the dental clinic last year and its current situation (no surgical procedures allowed due to an epic fail on an inspection last week). The Dayton VA isn't much better, though it is better. There are good VA hospitals, but there are more bad ones. Not coincidentally, the nicer ones are usually found in wealthier areas (e.g. Charleston, SC).

 

[soundforbjt]

There are good VA hospitals, but there are more bad ones. Not coincidentally, the nicer ones are usually found in wealthier areas (e.g. Charleston, SC).

Kinda like private hospitols too.

 

[Londo_Jowo]

There are good VA hospitals, but there are more bad ones. Not coincidentally, the nicer ones are usually found in wealthier areas (e.g. Charleston, SC).

Kinda like private hospitols too.

Funny how that works, wealthier areas have better stuff.

 

[Amused]

VA hospitals are used as part-time teaching hospitals with little accountability. A far superior approach would be to simply give vets a free insurance plan that can be used at any hospital. This would decrease the size of government and actually improve the quality of treatments vets receive.

The St. Louis VA is a scary, scary place running a huge budget deficit even before its problems with the dental clinic last year and its current situation (no surgical procedures allowed due to an epic fail on an inspection last week). The Dayton VA isn't much better, though it is better. There are good VA hospitals, but there are more bad ones. Not coincidentally, the nicer ones are usually found in wealthier areas (e.g. Charleston, SC).

Shhhh!!! People who have never set foot inside a military or VA hospital are too busy trying to prove a point.

I've been to the one in St Louis (Lived in Springfield IL) and you're right. It's one of the worst. I'm in San Diego now, and the VA here is one of the best. After many bad experiences with the VA system from the South to the Midwest, it was a pleasant surprise. Though from what I've seen of the dental clinic by way of fellow vets (although the dentists do try and mean well), they have no artistic ability whatsoever and really do some horrible bridges and restorations. I've seen some real butcher work on friends who had to go get it redone at private clinics.

Some people forget that dentistry and medicine is often more of an art than a science requiring talent along with knowledge. Dentists and doctors with real talent go where the money is... and the VA ain't it.

A curious side note. VA clinics and hospitals often look and feel like jails with high security, bullet proof glass separating you from the receptionists and checkpoints, often with metal detectors. Even here at San Diego where they do a fairly good job. Feels like walking into a ghetto check cashing joint/prison. Makes for a not so pleasant experience overall.

 

[soundforbjt]

I think we should let them use University hospitals as well.

 

[trenchfoot]

My wife gave birth at Tripler on O'ahu. She got what I consider to be first class service throughout her stay.

From personal experience and what I've heard of that hospital, as well as the adjoined Spark Matsunaga VA Center, your experience primarily depends on the luck of the draw as far as who actually gets to service you, and not so much policy and/or prevailing practices determining what kind of service you get.

 

[theeedude]

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/health/2011/02/10/nr.vets.hiv.exposure.cnn?hpt=C2

http://www.whiotv.com/news/26788140/detail.html



The CNN video has some more details on the specifics of this guy's actions. Using the same tools and gloves on multiple patients, operating the lunchroom microwave while gloves, then going back to the patient, operating the elevator buttons with gloves the going back to the patient, etc.

Absolutely appalling. Sadly, this is pretty typical of not just VA care, but also active duty medical care. The CNN video makes note that this 'doctor' is still on the VA payroll too. For those in P&N that wonder why so many people oppose government medical care, this is why. I'm a veteran myself, and I've my own collection of horror stories from the medical facilities, as well as pretty much every other Airman I served with. Nothing close to this though, or the Walter Reed stuff from a few years back. BTW, the Walter Reed issues are still ongoing, they haven't been fixed.

This where you want your medical care to go?

So why do you and other airmen use the VA system if it's so horrible?

 

[CycloWizard]

I think we should let them use University hospitals as well.

Faculty and especially residents from teaching hospitals provide quite a bit of care at VA facilities. One of the reasons St. Louis is so bad, despite having lots of docs from WashU med school, is the fact that we have people from different med schools in the same VA hospital, so it's an organizational nightmare.

 

[CycloWizard]

Kinda like private hospitols too.

If the VA is externally funded (which it is), quality of care should be relatively uniform across the country. The only reason for a correlation would be if the VA were trying to compete with the local hospitals. I don't know anyone who would choose the best VA hospital over a mediocre private hospital. If you could go to Barnes-Jewish for a procedure or St. Louis VA (John Cochran), which would you choose? Regardless of the procedure, you'd be an idiot to choose the VA, yet they are only separated by a few miles (indeed, I'm leaving to drive from one to the other right now).

 

[OutHouse]

there's a thread about a woman who was accidentally prescribed an abortion pill by a privately owned pharmacy and she had to go to a hospital because of it:

I shop at that safeway and have all my scripts filled there. never had a problem.

 

[OutHouse]

Sorry to hear of your experience, and just wanted to share mine under the heading of misery loves company, but this time for laughs:

So I get really really sick in Basic, go on sick call with a 102 fever. By the time I get diagnosed (they never ever told me what I was sick from) I'm doing 104. By the time I get into a bed I'm doing 105. So the remedy for that is I get ordered to start pumping myself with large doses of iced kool-aid (I have to get up out of bed, go out to the cafeteria down the hall and refill, piss on the way back, repeat-repeat-repeat). The fever doesn't go down, so now I get the joy of having ice packs between my legs and armpits. So now I have to refill my kool-aid, and refill my ice packs at the ice machine in the cafeteria every few hours, until on my way back to the room I collapse from the delerium of the high temps. I make a mess with the kool-aid soaking my gown and make a mess on the floor. An orderly comes rushing up to me literally screaming at me to clean up the mess while I'm still floating in Lake Kool-aid. So I push myself up to a sitting position, my palm slips in the kool-aid and my ear smacks into the cherry colored pond and I get this piercing pain in my ear like I know something broke in there, and all the time this orderly keeps yelling at me to get up and clean up my mess. BTW, this is all happening around 0200. A towel appears out of nowhere so I start sopping the mess up. A mop and pail then appears out of nowhere so I start using that. Somebody yanks the mop out of my hands and tells me to GTFO of THEIR hallway and never come back.

So I get back to the room with the other five-six guys in there, crawl back in bed and fell asleep. A few seconds later (3 hrs. - I know this because at 0600 it's time to get up, make up our beds and crawl back in again - IDKW) this pretty nurse starts yelling at me that I messed up HER bed from the kool-aid soaked gown and how the hell did I do that and where was HER ice bags and why did I have to ruin HER day like I did. All this while I'm still running a high fever. I knew that because every time I yawned the tears that welled up felt hot.

So I get to sponge bath myself, get a fresh gown (finally) and whoo-hoo fresh sheets (finally).

Spent six frolicking days in the hospital, got all kinds of people pissed at me just for being there, never was told what I was sick from and had to recycle two weeks back in Basic.

FUN!

yup unless you are wounded in combat, military hospitals treat you like a piece of shit.

 

[Amused]

A curious side note. VA clinics and hospitals often look and feel like jails with high security, bullet proof glass separating you from the receptionists and checkpoints, often with metal detectors. Even here at San Diego where they do a fairly good job. Feels like walking into a ghetto check cashing joint/prison. Makes for a not so pleasant experience overall.

You know, it's funny that no one addresses this. But one has to wonder the REAL reason VA facilities are set up like prisons and/or ghetto check cashing joints?

What are the VA folks so scared of? Could it be decades of treating vets so poorly has led to so many attacks on staff that they felt the need to implement such high security? Even the nicest facility I've seen has this kind of security. You literally feel like you're in a jail.

 

[CycloWizard]

You know, it's funny that no one addresses this. But one has to wonder the REAL reason VA facilities are set up like prisons and/or ghetto check cashing joints?

What are the VA folks so scared of? Could it be decades of treating vets so poorly has led to so many attacks on staff that they felt the need to implement such high security? Even the nicest facility I've seen has this kind of security. You literally feel like you're in a jail.

They were built in the 50's and 60's, when most buildings were built that way. There actually is a check cashing place across the street from St. Louis VA though...

 

[Amused]

They were built in the 50's and 60's, when most buildings were built that way. There actually is a check cashing place across the street from St. Louis VA though...

Um, no. Even older civilian hospitals aren't built that way with metal detectors and what looks like airport security at the front, along with glass with speaker systems to talk to all receptionists and nurses. Security warnings on all the locked doors, as well... warning personnel to keep the doors closed.

AND, the NEWER VA buildings are built this way as well, including the newer clinics in San Diego.

http://www.sandiego.va.gov/visitors/missionvalley.asp